Guild Wars 2

Necromancer
Putrid Mark: This skill will now blast an area only once when the trap executes.

Doesn’t this mean that, for all practical purposes, Putrid Mark is not a blast finisher. It’s completely dependent on your enemy.

I hope I’m misunderstanding something.

It was always like that. I assume they just fixed it so it no longer displays a blast message when placing. And no longer double triggers when being set off. So really its just polish to fix some misunderstandings with how it worked. Because it was already crap and buggy. Now its less buggy but still crap.

And yeah it was always a crap finisher because you had to do it in combat.

One more step to kittening staff over. These devs sure know what they’re doing.

spoj.9672:

It was always like that. I assume they just fixed it so it no longer displays a blast message when placing. And no longer double triggers when being set off.

False. I tested it in heart of the mists. I’d align it so it blasted but did not hit the enemy, it’d put a 4 sec weakness on the dummy. If I did both blasts it was 8. It did what it showed.

It never made sense that it had a double blast finisher. Yes it sucks that they fixed it, but its a mechanics/clarity > balance fix.

Nerfed once nerfed twice, it must be nerfed again.

Not enough nerf is not enough

nothing to see here move along

Would have been better to fix it the other way. It blasts when placed.

I agree.

ronpierce.2760:

spoj.9672:

It was always like that. I assume they just fixed it so it no longer displays a blast message when placing. And no longer double triggers when being set off.

False. I tested it in heart of the mists. I’d align it so it blasted but did not hit the enemy, it’d put a 4 sec weakness on the dummy. If I did both blasts it was 8. It did what it showed.

I never got the thing to ever blast might when placed on a fire field. I never really bothered to pay attention if the activation caused a “double” blast or not, but It always seemed to be a single bast to me.

My interpretation of this was they simply removed the blast notice that did nothign when you dropped the mark,… but I could be wrong.

TooBz.3065:

Would have been better to fix it the other way. It blasts when placed.

It would have been a million times better. This way you’re just losing control over the blast finisher in case it doesn’t trigger immediatly.

Bhawb.7408:

It never made sense that it had a double blast finisher. Yes it sucks that they fixed it, but its a mechanics/clarity > balance fix.

It made total sense to me, it was a reliable and clear mechanic once you understood how it works.
My guess is that they wanted to nerf the condition duration a double blast would give, like up to 20 sec weakness for condition necros.

That nerf wasn’t necessary, and it’s a seriously hard nerf at that. -.-

The fix may have been good (it was clear it wasn’t intended), but as it’s been there since release, it has been an integral part of our overall effectiveness. However small, this is once again a flat nerf .

Tbh I’m finding this stream of small balance nerfs and fixes over the last months (what is it? 6, 7?), without any form of compensation in other areas, increasingly hard to swallow…

ronpierce.2760:

spoj.9672:

It was always like that. I assume they just fixed it so it no longer displays a blast message when placing. And no longer double triggers when being set off.

False. I tested it in heart of the mists. I’d align it so it blasted but did not hit the enemy, it’d put a 4 sec weakness on the dummy. If I did both blasts it was 8. It did what it showed.

It doesnt produce an effect unless the mark gets triggered. This has always been the case. Ive tested this numerous times trying to get might stacks out of combat. I even tested it with aoe weakness. Didnt work.

Im guessing it worked for you on the dummy because you placed chillblains on the dummy and it caused a weird sort of memory trigger.

Rennoko.5731:

I never got the thing to ever blast might when placed on a fire field. I never really bothered to pay attention if the activation caused a “double” blast or not, but It always seemed to be a single bast to me.

My interpretation of this was they simply removed the blast notice that did nothign when you dropped the mark,… but I could be wrong.

If you placed it in a field and it didn’t trigger directly, it would ‘store’ the blast and activate the effect whenever the mark was triggered.

If you place it in a field and it also activated while the field was still up, you would indeed get 2 blasts (e.g. 6 stacks of might).

Anything that works consistently makes sense once you understand it. I used to understand the incredibly arbitrary and overly complex minion aggro because it was consistent, that doesn’t mean it also wasn’t stupid and needed changing.

It made no sense that the skill stored a blast finisher and then could blow up an extra one. It just did that. It is obviously a nerf, but it isn’t a nerf to something you could control well. I’d prefer they make clarity changes like this at the expense of a little bit of balance (which, technically should be made up for later) than keep in every little esoteric mechanic.

Bhawb.7408:

Anything that works consistently makes sense once you understand it. I used to understand the incredibly arbitrary and overly complex minion aggro because it was consistent, that doesn’t mean it also wasn’t stupid and needed changing.

It made no sense that the skill stored a blast finisher and then could blow up an extra one. It just did that. It is obviously a nerf, but it isn’t a nerf to something you could control well. I’d prefer they make clarity changes like this at the expense of a little bit of balance (which, technically should be made up for later) than keep in every little esoteric mechanic.

Agreed.

Still wish it worked without triggering though. I need to be able to stack might out of combat.

spoj.9672:

ronpierce.2760:

spoj.9672:

It was always like that. I assume they just fixed it so it no longer displays a blast message when placing. And no longer double triggers when being set off.

False. I tested it in heart of the mists. I’d align it so it blasted but did not hit the enemy, it’d put a 4 sec weakness on the dummy. If I did both blasts it was 8. It did what it showed.

It doesnt produce an effect unless the mark gets triggered. This has always been the case. Ive tested this numerous times trying to get might stacks out of combat. I even tested it with aoe weakness. Didnt work.

Im guessing it worked for you on the dummy because you placed chillblains on the dummy and it caused a weird sort of memory trigger.

I used chillblains → putrid mark, it gave 8 seconds of weakness. To make sure I wasn’t mistaken I used Chill Blains → Putrid explosion, half the duration. Numbers don’t lie. I did it like 8 times in a row to make sure. Worked every time as it showed.

spoj.9672:

Still wish it worked without triggering though. I need to be able to stack might out of combat.

Tbh, I’d rather keep it the way it is. You don’t have any fire fields as a necro, all blasts you can do on your own are enemy debuffs, so in a PvP environment it’s definitely preferable if your combo weakness/blind/spec armor is triggered by a foe.

More nerfs to prepare us for the multitude of nerfs coming in the great balance patch.

Does anyone on the balance team actually main necromancer or are they all warriors?

ronpierce.2760:

spoj.9672:

ronpierce.2760:

spoj.9672:

It was always like that. I assume they just fixed it so it no longer displays a blast message when placing. And no longer double triggers when being set off.

False. I tested it in heart of the mists. I’d align it so it blasted but did not hit the enemy, it’d put a 4 sec weakness on the dummy. If I did both blasts it was 8. It did what it showed.

It doesnt produce an effect unless the mark gets triggered. This has always been the case. Ive tested this numerous times trying to get might stacks out of combat. I even tested it with aoe weakness. Didnt work.

Im guessing it worked for you on the dummy because you placed chillblains on the dummy and it caused a weird sort of memory trigger.

I used chillblains -> putrid mark, it gave 8 seconds of weakness. To make sure I wasn’t mistaken I used Chill Blains -> Putrid explosion, half the duration. Numbers don’t lie. I did it like 8 times in a row to make sure. Worked every time as it showed.

My point is you havent tested it without having something trigger either the field or mark. It doesnt work if you place a regular field down and use it in that.

It’s not the end of all things yet.

It still has decent power damage compared to the other marks that they can nerf into oblivion too.

I want a short range land spear with cleave, Torment, bleeds, and CC to compliment scepter and a long range, single target weapon with no AoE higher single target dps than the staff.

spoj.9672:

ronpierce.2760:

spoj.9672:

ronpierce.2760:

spoj.9672:

It was always like that. I assume they just fixed it so it no longer displays a blast message when placing. And no longer double triggers when being set off.

False. I tested it in heart of the mists. I’d align it so it blasted but did not hit the enemy, it’d put a 4 sec weakness on the dummy. If I did both blasts it was 8. It did what it showed.

It doesnt produce an effect unless the mark gets triggered. This has always been the case. Ive tested this numerous times trying to get might stacks out of combat. I even tested it with aoe weakness. Didnt work.

Im guessing it worked for you on the dummy because you placed chillblains on the dummy and it caused a weird sort of memory trigger.

I used chillblains -> putrid mark, it gave 8 seconds of weakness. To make sure I wasn’t mistaken I used Chill Blains -> Putrid explosion, half the duration. Numbers don’t lie. I did it like 8 times in a row to make sure. Worked every time as it showed.

My point is you havent tested it without having something trigger either the field or mark. It doesnt work if you place a regular field down and use it in that.

MY point is, its a 50% nerf to my only weakness application on my build, regardless of how it works with other fields. x.X

TooBz.3065:

Would have been better to fix it the other way. It blasts when placed.

Correct. I guess you are supposed to place the mark and when you notice an enemy approaching it you throw down a field right before they trigger it. P

Rennoko.5731:

ronpierce.2760:

spoj.9672:

It was always like that. I assume they just fixed it so it no longer displays a blast message when placing. And no longer double triggers when being set off.

False. I tested it in heart of the mists. I’d align it so it blasted but did not hit the enemy, it’d put a 4 sec weakness on the dummy. If I did both blasts it was 8. It did what it showed.

I never got the thing to ever blast might when placed on a fire field. I never really bothered to pay attention if the activation caused a “double” blast or not, but It always seemed to be a single bast to me.

My interpretation of this was they simply removed the blast notice that did nothign when you dropped the mark,… but I could be wrong.

Tested it a long time ago to get swiftness while roaming but it didn’t work. Swiftness notification would come up but no buff. We weren’t in combat though.

I think someone mentioned above that it worked only when in combat. That is, that the placement blast actually only gave the effect if you were in combat but still gave the combo heart graphic anyway.

Oozo.7856:

Rennoko.5731:

ronpierce.2760:

spoj.9672:

It was always like that. I assume they just fixed it so it no longer displays a blast message when placing. And no longer double triggers when being set off.

False. I tested it in heart of the mists. I’d align it so it blasted but did not hit the enemy, it’d put a 4 sec weakness on the dummy. If I did both blasts it was 8. It did what it showed.

I never got the thing to ever blast might when placed on a fire field. I never really bothered to pay attention if the activation caused a “double” blast or not, but It always seemed to be a single bast to me.

My interpretation of this was they simply removed the blast notice that did nothign when you dropped the mark,… but I could be wrong.

Tested it a long time ago to get swiftness while roaming but it didn’t work. Swiftness notification would come up but no buff. We weren’t in combat though.

I think someone mentioned above that it worked only when in combat. That is, that the placement blast actually only gave the effect if you were in combat but still gave the combo heart graphic anyway.

Ah I did not test in combat… that might be the difference… Either way it matters not now. Talk about a skill that was really something in its younger years, and has grown old and useless. At least it still transfer 3 self conditions. Maybe it will get changed to one next patch.

Guys to clarify something with ally based blast finishes, it saved the initial blast finish with the mark proc, so no you couldnt get a fire field putrid mark blast finisher just by dropping, it had to be procced either way (for 6 might).

Oozo.7856:

Rennoko.5731:

ronpierce.2760:

spoj.9672:

It was always like that. I assume they just fixed it so it no longer displays a blast message when placing. And no longer double triggers when being set off.

False. I tested it in heart of the mists. I’d align it so it blasted but did not hit the enemy, it’d put a 4 sec weakness on the dummy. If I did both blasts it was 8. It did what it showed.

I never got the thing to ever blast might when placed on a fire field. I never really bothered to pay attention if the activation caused a “double” blast or not, but It always seemed to be a single bast to me.

My interpretation of this was they simply removed the blast notice that did nothign when you dropped the mark,… but I could be wrong.

Tested it a long time ago to get swiftness while roaming but it didn’t work. Swiftness notification would come up but no buff. We weren’t in combat though.

I think someone mentioned above that it worked only when in combat. That is, that the placement blast actually only gave the effect if you were in combat but still gave the combo heart graphic anyway.

For old times sake:

1. Regardless of whether you were in combat or not, placing the center of the mark on a combo field would charge the mark with the respective combo and always show a combo icon as a visual feedback for the successful charge.

2. If the mark wasn’t triggered instantly it would keep the charge for the entire duration it stayed alive (30 sec), even if the combo field expired.

3. If there was an enemy standing on the mark when placed at the same time you would instantly trigger the second combo as well.

4. When the mark is triggered later it will combo with the field that is on the mark at that time (or has combo priority if there are multiple fields).

5. This means that a single trigger could cause 2 different combo effects.

Just like the entire mark mechanic, precasting not just the mark itself but the combo that would trigger later was extremely useful and a strategic asset.
Now, like Oozo mentioned, it’s either pure accident what field happens to end up on the mark when it’s triggered, or you place a field just then if you want to avoid a wasted blast finisher.

I’ll say it again, they removed the wrong part of the double finisher!

Look at all the confusion and discrepancy between Necros that I both know have played, and have personally talked to and respect. It seems like there isn’t even hardly a consensus among those trying to discuss what they thought it did, and some are complaining that making it more clear is a bad thing?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a terribly unreliable blast finisher. But since when are Necros graced with reliable blast finishers? Teleporting to Flesh Wurm (hope you didn’t need to escape with it), exploding Bone Minions, and triggering Putrid Mark.

I honestly don’t see what the hubbub is about. I think it’s just people who like to robble robble.

EDIT – And people would rather use it to “charge” blast finishers instead of transfer their condis to a target? Really?

EDIT 2 – Flow’s explanation of how it worked, which I believe is probably true, is convoluted and unnecessarily complex. I guess it’s more reliable if it charges up a blast finisher upon placement, but it still feels like an enormous waste of potential, hoping someone lands on it when you need it most.

Cogbyrn.7283:

it’s a terribly unreliable blast finisher

It was 100% reliable, now it’s not.

Cogbyrn.7283:

And people would rather use it to “charge” blast finishers instead of transfer their condis to a target? Really?

That’s not the point.
It’s not a question of what I would rather do when I am presented with both options. Sometimes you fight opponts who don’t inflict any or just very few conditions on you, or maybe your mark is just about off cd when the conditions on you are simply not worth the trasfer if you could prepare a blind or spectral armor combo instead.
Or maybe the situation requires you to switch weapons and all you can do is place the mark without a transfer or not use it at all, in which case I’d make sure to hit a combo field if possible, even if there’s no enemy on it to trigger it immediately.
All those examples might sound like niche uses for the mark, but they’re actually really common.

Cogbyrn.7283:

Flow’s explanation of how it worked, which I believe is probably true, is convoluted and unnecessarily complex.

Is it?
It was so simple really… and it’s not like they changed it, they just took the best part away. If anything it makes pulling off the blast finisher more complicated now.

flow.6043:

Cogbyrn.7283:

Flow’s explanation of how it worked, which I believe is probably true, is convoluted and unnecessarily complex.

Is it?
It was so simple really… and it’s not like they changed it, they just took the best part away. If anything it makes pulling off the blast finisher more complicated now.

Yup, twas nice, but im sure that 1 combo field (offensive one/blind,retal,chaos or weakness) didnt adhere to the rules and triggered on drop instead of being charged as a part of the mark trigger… i sadly cant remember which and didnt find where i mentioned it (and i know i did) on the forums…

A 5-step process to determine how a single skill behaved as a blast finisher. Tell me how you convey that to the user in a tooltip that isn’t 60+ words without them specifically running tests or reading about it online, and tell me how that’s good design.

Now, pulling off the blast finisher consists of:

Trigger the mark while in a field.

You might have liked the old mechanic, but you really think it was simple? It isn’t really difficult to understand, but look at all of the confusion in a thread of people who all think they know how it works. Many of them are just straight-up wrong, and they claim to be right. Is that healthy for the game? I get that it’s fun to know some hidden mechanic, but that doesn’t mean it should exist.

Cogbyrn.7283:

A 5-step process to determine how a single skill behaved as a blast finisher. Tell me how you convey that to the user in a tooltip that isn’t 60+ words without them specifically running tests or reading about it online, and tell me how that’s good design.

Now, pulling off the blast finisher consists of:

Trigger the mark while in a field.

You might have liked the old mechanic, but you really think it was simple? It isn’t really difficult to understand, but look at all of the confusion in a thread of people who all think they know how it works. Many of them are just straight-up wrong, and they claim to be right. Is that healthy for the game? I get that it’s fun to know some hidden mechanic, but that doesn’t mean it should exist.

You would almost think that game developers would create skills that seem and feel logical in it’s use and description.

You would also think that since you equipped a certain trait and sigil the buff given by those traits would work with the transformation of that profession.

You might even go as far as saying that skills should be nerfed because the tooltip only can hold 100 characters…. lol..

Cogbyrn.7283:

A 5-step process to determine how a single skill behaved as a blast finisher. Tell me how you convey that to the user in a tooltip that isn’t 60+ words without them specifically running tests or reading about it online, and tell me how that’s good design.

Actually I kept it short this time. I made a few posts about it in the past and they were all much longer.
But this skill is not the only one that requires a 5k-word-essay to fully describe.
And keep in mind the tooltip of Putrid Mark has always been hugely inaccurate. If they wanted to convey every little detail with it, even today, the tooltip would cover your whole screen.

Cogbyrn.7283:

Now, pulling off the blast finisher consists of:

Trigger the mark while in a field.

Same as before.

Also, one reason why people had difficulties with the blast finisher before is because they didn’t know that the center of the mark had to be placed on a combo field. There were so many posts on the forum about how unreliable the finisher was, but all they were doing was randomly overlapping a part of one circle with another and expect it to work.

Cogbyrn.7283:

You might have liked the old mechanic, but you really think it was simple? It isn’t really difficult to understand, but look at all of the confusion in a thread of people who all think they know how it works. Many of them are just straight-up wrong, and they claim to be right. Is that healthy for the game? I get that it’s fun to know some hidden mechanic, but that doesn’t mean it should exist.

Yes it was very simple, and it wasn’t a hidden mechanic or anything like that either.
It sounds a lot more complicated if you see it in writing. I explained the mark mechanic to some people in game as well, I had to repeat some parts in chat over and over until I just showed them. And if you see it once in game you instantly understand how it works.
It’s like explaining the offside rule in soccer. It’s super simply if you know how it works, but takes forever to explain to someone who doesn’t, which makes the rule itself not any less viable or important.

Once you’ve worked it out its clear. But before that its incredibly unclear exactly what it does. Its also almost impossible to explain properly to someone who doesnt know anything about how it works. Therefore its not clear and this bug fix will clear up some of the confusion. Yes its a nerf but who cares. Lets just hope they address our finisher shortage somehow later down the line.

Is Necro the only class in the game that is not allowed to have a blast finisher? What is the rationale for this decision?

Ashin.5986:

Is Necro the only class in the game that is not allowed to have a blast finisher? What is the rationale for this decision?

hmmm. maybe the necromancer was originally designed to be a pve mob.. ^^

Ashin.5986:

Is Necro the only class in the game that is not allowed to have a blast finisher? What is the rationale for this decision?

You have 3 blast finishers. They are just awkward.

Thieves have 2. Rangers have 2. Mesmers have 1.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blast_finisher

The More You Know.

Cogbyrn.7283:

Ashin.5986:

Is Necro the only class in the game that is not allowed to have a blast finisher? What is the rationale for this decision?

You have 3 blast finishers. They are just awkward.

Thieves have 2. Rangers have 2. Mesmers have 1.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blast_finisher

The More You Know.

Fairly certain necro has the lowest amount of total finishers+fields. At least so it would seem… Almost all classes factor in clever self-comboing as part of their skill ceiling, not very many Necromancer primary builds seem to have that effect. They have several fields with wells and a mark but not sufficient finishers to utilize them for what I’ve gathered.

ronpierce.2760:

Cogbyrn.7283:

Ashin.5986:

Is Necro the only class in the game that is not allowed to have a blast finisher? What is the rationale for this decision?

You have 3 blast finishers. They are just awkward.

Thieves have 2. Rangers have 2. Mesmers have 1.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blast_finisher

The More You Know.

Fairly certain necro has the lowest amount of total finishers+fields. At least so it would seem… Almost all classes factor in clever self-comboing as part of their skill ceiling, not very many Necromancer primary builds seem to have that effect. They have several fields with wells and a mark but not sufficient finishers to utilize them for what I’ve gathered.

Creating a metric just to show Necros are the lowest doesn’t really prove anything. Warriors have 1 field, on Longbow, so they can’t really self-combo anything at all besides some might, maybe. Thieves “cleverly” leap out of a smoke field to stealth all day. Do Rangers combo in their fields much, or just lay fields? Guardians can blast in their Light fields, but I almost never see that happen since Greatswords always seem to lay the mark down last.

That leaves Elementalists and Engineers. Engineers are the kings of self-combo variety, so in that you’re right. Elementalists have the potential as well, but I can’t say that I really see them do it in a small-scale PvP fight. The most I’ve seen is my girlfriend might stacking with her Ele in dungeons, which owns. However, I’ll concede that it can be part of their skill ceiling.

People concern themselves far too much with flashy combos anyway. All it takes is the knowledge and a bit of practice to get the muscle memory, and then it’s just a thing you do. Gaining the knowledge yourself requires you to be able to analyze your class as a whole to see the possibilities, but executing it isn’t really that magical. Winning in PvP or being skillful isn’t necessarily about pressing the most buttons in rapid succession. It’s about reading your opponent and putting him/her in the position that you want to be victorious.

Sorry, this got a bit off topic. Mainly tired of seeing people call classes “faceroll”, when the facerollers that just cycle through their abilities are free kills for anyone who knows what they are doing. No personal accountability for playing a situation poorly or introspection into how to play better.

Cogbyrn.7283:

Ashin.5986:

Is Necro the only class in the game that is not allowed to have a blast finisher? What is the rationale for this decision?

You have 3 blast finishers. They are just awkward.

Thieves have 2. Rangers have 2. Mesmers have 1.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blast_finisher

The More You Know.

The thing is, what do our fields do? what do the blasts do..?

As far as i can see we are handycapped because:
-One weapon blastfinisher now needs an enemy to trigger. (no control and needs a trait to work consistent “greater marks”)
-Second depends on AI and the utility skill is now nerfed. (no control)
-Third is a traversal that, to me, is not to never utilized. (I havn’t seen one necro cast fleshworm ahead of himself as of yet.)

In the grand sceme of things you can’t compare professions and number of blasts in general, add to it CD on weapon blasts or utility etc..

What ticks me off about the change is that the developers choose to make our blasts RNG (if you catch my drift) instead of control.
So yeah, removed the wrong part. especially if they call it a “trap” ^^

In the most general terms, combos are there to reward smart or cooperative play with increased dps. Some jobs get more fields or more finishers according to their original design concept. Poison and dark for a debuffing job with one light and one etherial for the off chance anyone uses it.

Ranger (ice armor and condi projectiles), Warrior (in case of the condi build), Guardian (retal leaps and cleanse spins) and Ele (EVERYTHING) that dont know how to combo are stupid, Mesmers are pretty much forced to combo or they die way too fast (chaos armor) or deal no damage (condi builds phantasmas proccing confusion projectiles for like 20% of their damage), Thief has his perma stealth and Engies rely on combo finishing to survive… Necros kinda only get to steal some life if even that via wells… blasts dont happen that often/useful as they did and you dont bring minions for blast finishing since you dont bring them at all.

Andele.1306:

… you dont bring minions for blast finishing since you dont bring them at all.

>.> Bhawb

It is difficult to describe how awesome I feel when someone combo’s a blind off of Well of Almost Everything… so I won’t.

I think it is very accurate that minions aren’t brought in non-minion builds to combo. I’d argue that that is completely stupid in the case of bone minions, seeing as they are two blasts every 20 seconds while also being pretty good direct damage, but regardless it is how things work right now. The issue is more that even if you bring bone minions, you can’t self combo, its to combo off allied fields.

There are two big issues with Necromancers and combos right now:
1) Lack of active finishers
2) Lack of good combination-making fields

The first is an issue in that we have exactly 1 good finisher for making combos with at all: Putrid Explosion. Every other good combo is still on minions, and are essentially just fire and forget. This is fine for minion builds, as they do get a lot of good combos going, but no one else gets decent access to this. Even Putrid Explosion is relatively difficult to combo except in specific situations (when a field is on your target, or ooc finishers on an allied field for buffing).

The second isn’t as big because we do have fields, but it is still an issue in that our fields don’t actually combo with anything non-minion. You put down a field, maybe blind someone once, or get chaos armor… and that’s it. Its not like engis who drop their Turret, blast for healing, pick it back up, or Thieves that jump through to get stealth. Ours just apply conditions. I’m not advocating we get all fields, but ones that are heavily offensive in nature, or ones that fit us (ice) should still be added.

But as it is now, non-MM necros really don’t get a lot of field play, and that is a lot of depth that other classes have, that we are severely lacking in.

Bhawb.7408:

I think it is very accurate that minions aren’t brought in non-minion builds to combo. I’d argue that that is completely stupid in the case of bone minions, seeing as they are two blasts every 20 seconds while also being pretty good direct damage, but regardless it is how things work right now. The issue is more that even if you bring bone minions, you can’t self combo, its to combo off allied fields. .

Let me control which minion blows up and if possible replace their models with black sperm or even quaggans for all i care (seriously the little whale rat kitten has a better model than jhorrors/bone minions) and ill take them in a heartbeat, but with the current rng aspect of their explosions, with the recent nerf and non scaling damage only chance ill take them is if the party consists of only mesmers guardians and necros if on a condi build (since then the flat explosion is nice).

It’s always the closest bone minion that detonates first. It’s very predictable.

Now, exact position of said finisher, on the other hand…

Like Dranor said, you always can know which one will blow up. The issue is that you can’t tell them to go die in the proper spot to trigger that tiny spectral line on the ground.